Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

When my granddaughter finally got up this morning, we had a political discussion at breakfast about the U.S. not being a good country. None of them are, of course, but she is experiencing the disconnect between what she has learned in school and what history really is. She recently found out Columbus was not who she thought he was. She's experiencing disenchantment and feeling tricked. The myths are so different from the reality. I'm proud of her questioning mind, and I can remember when I was similarly shocked: The Bay of Pigs, the Pentagon Papers, and other revelations. I said transparency is always better, however late it is, because then you are forced to accept human nature, and once we know who we really are as a species, we can struggle to rise above selfish motivations. We are animals, and share many of the traits we wish we didn't. As my Buddhist teacher says, we are not as evolved as we'd like to be. It's touching, that at thirteen she wants to tackle these prickly issues, and her mind is an amazing resource for enriching her life. It's also helping her talk about and experience her grief over her mother's death, and feel the unfairness, the injustice in life. Looking hard directly at the pain builds the courage muscle, and also empathy expands. Loss is a part of life, as is bad behavior of humans. But we are not limited by such experiences. We can grow and change and tackle what is right on behalf of those who cannot. There is work to do. And hope.